I'd rather make a mixtape with songs like Chin Up Cheer Up, To Be Young, Shakedown on 9th Street, Gonna Make You Love Me, Firecracker, Dance All Night, and Crazy About You when I want to hear him just rockin' about.

Just wanted to say thanks to you guys for the suggestions. I cannot remember the last time I was so into what I was listening to... Tee hee... I love it when music is invigorating. Currently downloading everything I can find from him...

Seventy-three-year-old music icon Willie Nelson collaborates with 31-year-old singer/songwriter Ryan Adams on his new album, Songbird. Due Oct. 31 via Lost Highway, the 11-track set was produced by Adams, whose band the Cardinals back Nelson throughout. Veteran harmonica player Mickey Raphael also appears.

Nelson is in the midst of a tour with John Fogerty and also has headlining dates on tap through a Sept. 15 appearance at the Austin City Limits festival. On Sept. 30 in Camden, N.J., he will join Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews and Jerry Lee Lewis for Farm Aid in Camden, N.J.

Never one to sit around twiddling his thumbs, prolific singer/songwriter Ryan Adams is doing what he does best: releasing another album. His ninth solo release, Easy Tiger has been scheduled for June 5 daylight via Lost Highway.

While there has been no confirmation on the specifics of the album, we do have a tracklist, which contains a selection of songs that have been featured at one point in time on his enigmatic website. The final sequence(like many of his live shows) is still to be determined.

Besides "Off Broadway", which I always thought of as one of the more forgettable Suicide Handbook tracks, I'm only familiar with "Everybody Knows" and "Two", but those are both great songs. Reminiscent of Heartbreaker or Suicide Handbook, with just a touch of Jacksonville City Nights.

Side note: does anybody have or know where I can find an mp3 of the "Look Who's Got a Website" rap that used to stream in the background of www.ryan-adams.com (one of the most bizarre, brilliant sites on all the interwebs, by the way)?

Ryan Adams' Myspace has a very cool little interview/review of "Easy Tiger", written by #1 Fan Stephen King.

It was, Ryan Adams says, this girl he’s been spending time with; the title of this album is her fault. “She wanted to go out to dinner at eight; I wanted to go right away. She said, ‘Easy, Tiger.’ And that hit me. It stuck with me to the point where I called up Neal [that would be Neal Casal, guitarist of The Cardinals] and left a message on his answering machine with those two words. ‘Don’t forget this,’ I said, ‘cause I want to use it.’ ”

Adams laughs and adds, “I think he’s still got that message.”

And I understand that. Some things you just save, because they’re worth playing over again.

I think there are really only two kinds of pop music CDs these days. There are the ones you listen to only once or twice, maybe downloading the single good song to your iPod or computer; then there are others that grow stronger, sweeter, and more necessary each time you play them. Gold was that way; Cold Roses was that way; so was Jacksonville City Nights. I won’t say Adams is the best North American singer-songwriter since Neil Young…but I won’t say he isn’t, either. What I know is there has never been a Ryan Adams record quite as strong and together as Easy Tiger; it’s got enough blue-eyed, blue-steel soul (with the faintest country tinge) to make me think of both Marvin Gaye and the Righteous Brothers. Probably ridiculous, but true. And the songs themselves are beautiful—the lyrics tightly focused and brief, the feeling one of melancholy calm that will probably be a revelation to fans that remember the old, sometimes angry Ryan Adams.

He agrees that the tone of Easy Tiger is different — not dark, just different—and suggests in passing that it may have something to do with both sobering up and growing up (he’s 32). Then he goes on to talk about the process, which is clearly something close to his heart. “I write on a manual typewriter,” he says. “I get up, I have a cup of coffee, I sit down at the typewriter. I never spent a useless day behind a typewriter.”

I say amen to that, but he’s already going on.

“It’s like—I don’t know, sometimes it’s like chasing a pretty girl on the beach. And things I never thought I could do…I can do.”

I mention how prolific he is, aware that I might be touching a sore point. After all, there are plenty of critics who seem to think that’s a bad thing. Adams, however, just laughs.

“Yeah, yeah, in America people give you shit for working hard,” he says. “But…it’s process, that’s all. I process things. I went into the dream business. If people need ‘em, I’ve got extra.”

He talks enthusiastically about all the unreleased material he hopes to set free in a box set, maybe at the end of the year (“If people hear it all, then they’ll get the connections,” he says), but that’s then. Now there’s this, maybe the best Ryan Adams CD ever. And I know you want to listen to it right away. But slow down. Take your time. This album asks for that, and it will reward your full attention.

New Ryan Adams album coming out in October. The selling point is that he actually spent time and effort writing and recording it, which is a weird thing to be a selling point, but Ryan Adams is weird that way. I actually liked Cardinalogy quite a bit, even if few of the songs were particularly memorable, but III/IV was mostly a waste. This one I'm excited for.

Lucky Now, off the new album. Mellow and melodic and great. Sounds like something off the Follow the Lights EP.

Yeah, he's playing a a string of acoustic shows here in California and I've got tickets for a couple of them. I've enjoyed him since the Whiskeytown-era and, while some of his recent efforts have left me a bit cold, I always find a song or two to love even on his lesser albums.

Last time I saw him was right before he disbanded the Cardinals as a touring band... which was sad to hear because I was surprised how great they were together. I've seen him plenty of times with varying lineups and the Cardinals contributed immense to one of the best shows I've seen him play.

I'm excited, too. I even listened to LIH straight through last night - it still plays like 2 EPs or a double album, but I like all the songs. I saw him in Dallas on the Cardinology tour and it was incredible. No opener and they played a long set with no breaks I think. That album didn't represent their great live sound though. I didn't go for the metal album or 3/4. I wonder if his marriage to Mandy has made him focus more? He hasn't lost his fanbase though. He will get 500 responses quickly on any Facebook post it seems.

I don't know if I want to spring for those deluxe preorders or not. I don't know how interesting the 3-D photos will be or how many Pax-AM Bucks you get.

New Ryan Adams album coming out in September. I'm desperate for another truly great album from the dude.

Thoughts on the song: the song itself is all right, not particular memorable lyrically or melodically, but solid and catchy. Mostly I'm pleased that he seems to have put forth the effort in both the production and his vocal performance, which are the two things that seem to fallen by the wayside on his past few albums. The closest comparison to his previous work is probably Cardinology, but with a more polished, less "first-take" sound. And not completely forgettable in the way that pretty much all of Ashes & Fire was.

I've really liked the songs I've heard off the new album, but I also just listened the "1984" EP, and it's fucking fantastic. Ryan channeling his inner Hüsker Dü over a 10-track, half-hour album. It might be pastiche, but it stands up as a brilliant example of the style it's emulating.